


#klancelockdownweek | Day 3 & 4

by EleanoraWrites



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Eventual Keith/Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Minor Keith/Lance (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Orphan Keith (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith/Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn Keith/Lance (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Soft Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23528392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EleanoraWrites/pseuds/EleanoraWrites
Summary: He touches the digital panel next to the door, trembling fingers tracing the Altean symbols he barely recognises and unlocks it. The metallic swoosh and the cold, dry current of air that embraces him feel desperate, a groan that echoes his own emotions and rattle in his bones.And the darkness and emptiness outside wash over him like a cloak of coldness.-----Lost in his own grief after losing Shiro, Keith hides in his room from the rest of the team. And with the heavy weight of memories, he sulks away. But a knock on the door might awake something in him.A short Klance drabble for Mel's(@vhms0ul)Klance Lock-down Week.
Relationships: Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Kudos: 31





	1. Day 3: Keith's Room

**Author's Note:**

> First published on Instagram:  
> • [Day 3: Keith's Room](https://www.instagram.com/p/B-fZsnYgZMk/?igshid=26ivdx955p4z)  
> • [Day 4: Lion](https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ptpdqnva1/?igshid=127zrgfcdqjec)

Keith didn't feel like joining the team for dinner. His mind was elsewhere, wandering the dark of his past and planning an uncertain future. His present was a mess, a confusion of emotions he couldn't discern even if he focused on them. This bubbling maze of endless thoughts with no coherent stream to them was bringing Keith to an ultimate depression he didn't want to venture in.

But the more he tried to push it aside, the worst it felt like. Or the worst _he_ felt.

He sighs, throwing his head back and hitting the wall, the pain a small comfort to his weariness. The room was plunged in semi-darkness, the soft and small blue led lights framing the walls the only illumination that cast strange shadows around his surroundings. They danced, telling stories of their own while tricking Keith into believing that loneliness was best. Hypnotic in a way, he could lift a hand and see its silhouette stark against the wall, fingers trailing the air alongside his heavy breathing.

There's a knock on the door. Keith is abruptly pulled back from his self-induced reverie and startles, not expecting any kind of company whatsoever. He had been locked in his room for days in a row, only facing the rest of the Paladins for training and meetings concerning their next missions. Apart from that, he secluded himself in his room with nothing but the ghosts of his own mind.

"Hey, Keith?" comes Lance's voice, muffled and distant through the door.

Keith feels his body shiver, a cold sweep of goosebumps that does nothing to ease his spirits. On the contrary; they disturb him further.

"Come on man, you've been stuck in your room for days," Lance continues. There's a certain edge to his tone, a particular crack in the way he finishes his sentences that isn't usually part of Lance's constant high pitched voice. Keith doesn't reply, only stares at the door while waiting, listening to the pound of his heart in his ears, almost not breathing at all. "You gotta eat something. Hunk made some delicious alien goo that, trust me, actually tastes like chicken. You gotta try it. I brought you a plate."

Keith can hear the rattle of cutlery against porcelain and can't help but a small smile to curl at the corners of his lips against his will. 

"Alright mullet, your loss," Lance says and Keith can see in his head Lance shrugging his shoulders casually and probably taking a bite of the food, cheeks full while he chews. "Delicious! You're missing out of some great cooking from the big guy, just so you know. This is, by far, the best dish he managed to make with that disgusting thing Coran calls food."

Keith chuckles to himself shaking his head in disbelief. Lance was brave enough to come knocking on his door even after their small altercation on the training deck. The memory of their fight is still too recent, like a fresh wound still bleeding out. He can still hear the way Lance had yelled at him, exasperated.

_We're in a war, Keith, we can't afford to be selfish and right now, you're only thinking about yourself. You think you're the only one hurting? Well, you're not. But I'm using that pain for fighting, not locking myself in my room and brooding all day long. Wake up!_

After that, Keith threw his bayard to the ground and stormed out of the training room, the whispers of his teammates following each step he took while Lance's raging words rained down like a deluge over him. 

It had hurt, Keith is not going to lie. Those words thrown at him in the heat of a fight, the way Lance fumed at him with anger reddening his once blue eyes. How he had felt like a child again, small and insignificant. 

But Lance was right, Keith was utterly aware of that. They say that the truth hurts and they were right.

Ever since that argument, Keith has been feeling like a coward, hiding away in the seclusion of his dark room while his sadness and sorrow consume the last of the battle cry within him. His pain, losing Shiro while trying to protect the universe from Zarkon and the Galra, should've been the fuel he needed to fight back and harder. Instead, he had stepped back in time and was a child once again, staring at his father's grave and feeling completely alone and abandoned.

Once again.

"Keith?" Lance knocks once again. This time his voice is low, barely audible through the door. "Whenever you're ready to talk, I'll be here. Okay, buddy?"

Silence reins for a few seconds. Or maybe it was minutes. Time was a strange concept to Keith in this state. 

He opens his mouth but only a low croak comes out, his throat raw and raspy. He exhales through his nostrils, closing his eyes tightly against the current of turmoil that suddenly possesses him. Lance doesn't say anything else, doesn't try to pry Keith from his lethargy. No sound at all to fill the emptiness within those four walls that seemed to close in on Keith.

Eventually, he stands up from his bed, his muscles complaining after hours upon hours clinging to his legs. He sways a little, a small dizziness reminding him that weakness is clinging to him, and takes a tentative step towards the door. He feels compelled to be closer to Lance somehow, to see him and to try to apologise, to talk to him… to _something_.

He touches the digital panel next to the door, trembling fingers tracing the Altean symbols he barely recognises and unlocks it. The metallic swoosh and the cold, dry current of air that embraces him feel desperate, a groan that echoes his own emotions and rattle in his bones.

And the darkness and emptiness outside wash over him like a cloak of coldness. 

Lance was gone, his presence a lingering ghost that pulled on Keith's heartstrings so hard it actually hurt. On the floor was a tray with the plate of food. It didn't look at all delicious but Keith's stomach growls at the sight and he slowly picks it up, looking left and right on the corridor to make sure Lance was really gone.

Keith sighs again, a sigh that partly lifts the heavy burden of his grief but doesn't erase it completely. The fact that Lance had been kind enough to worry about him, bringing him food and offering his ear and shoulder even after their fight, meant that perhaps Keith wasn't alone and didn't need to hurt in the solitude of his own pain. Maybe, for the first time in his life he could share his hurt and tears with someone and wipe them with their company and compassion.

Maybe… maybe Keith didn't need to be alone anymore.


	2. Day 4: Lion

Roaming the dark hallways of the Castle seemed almost peaceful. The quiet hum of the engines thrums through the sterile floor, a soft reverberation that thrills Keith's as he ventures through the corridors. He doesn't even know where his feet are taking him, only that he follows them silently, mind reeling with whatever thoughts assault him, too many for him to keep track.

The door slides open and he finds himself in the hanger. The light almost blinds him after so many long hours in the dark of his own seclusion and he blinks, vision blurring slightly. Then he gasps, breath choked on the lump of his throat as he recognises his previous Lion.

Red stands majestic as always, an imposing beast that once accepted him wholly. She's a beauty, the fastest of the Lions as well as the most temperamental but the most loyal of them all. She has been there when his world turned upside down. She had witnessed the pain he bore after losing his brother. She has consoled him when no-one knew how to. 

And now, she belonged to Lance.

His heart pounds again heavily at the thought. Red chose Lance to follow on Keith's footsteps. A choice he didn't expect but at the same time wasn't surprised. Deep down, Lance and Keith were very much alike; both fierce in war and determined to fight for those they loved. The only difference was in Keith's impulsiveness that bordered on the reckless while Lance was more considerate and thoughtful.

He lets his breath out in a long-suffering exhale and approaches Red. Her eyes seem to gleam with his presence and he tries to reach her, to feel that bond that connected him to her. It was there, pulsating like a heartbeat but distant.

"Hey girl," he says, patting her metallic paw. 

"Keith?" the voice echoes through the hanger and Keith startles, looking around as he tries to follow the source of the voice. "Up here, dude."

He looks up and swallows as he spots Lance peeking down from the top of Red's head. Once again there's that drop in his stomach, that skip of his heart that, from some reason, flutters in a frenzy. 

"Wait up, I'll be down in a minute," Lance says without giving Keith enough time to complain. 

He just stands there, butterflies dancing in his gut and waits. Even if he wanted to move he couldn't, rooted to his spot as if by invisible forces that didn't let him walk away. He glances up at Red, hears the drum of her purr inside him and wonders if this is her doing.

There's the sound of metal raging and then Lance appears from around Red's paw, adjusting his signature green jacket as he approaches Keith. He observes the way he walks, a slight swag in each step Lance takes that is almost hypnotic.

"What're you doing here?" Lance asks standing before Keith, hands in his pockets and a lenient expression of sympathy softly caressing his features. Under the bright light of the hanger, Keith notices how the dark circles under his eyes are puffed, the blue that once gleamed like the ocean on a summer day seemed darker than usual, the colour of a tempest about to rage through. 

"I don't know," Keith replies truthfully, crossing his arms at his chest and looking at his precious Lion. "I guess she called me here?"

"You guess?"

Keith shrugs his shoulders and adverts Lance's gaze. 

What was he doing there? He hadn't meant to venture so far into the Castle. Actually, he didn't even know why he left his room in the first place. He just had this urge to leave, to walk and venture outside the confinement of his bedroom where the darkness and shadows had begun to close in on him. He had felt the need to breathe, to escape those tendrils of depressing thoughts that kept clinging to his sorrow.

With an inward gasp, Keith realised that deep down he had been wanting to find Lance, to find his free spirit and light humour that swats the gloominess away with his mere presence.

"Did you eat?" Lance asks out of nowhere, bringing Keith back to reality and he blinks back at Lance, puzzled. "The food I brought you."

"Yes, I did," Keith nods. "Thank you, Lance."

"You need your strength if you're to lead us in this war," Lance says matter-of-factly, a simple curl on his lips dimpling his cheek slightly and Keith feels that pound once again, hurting his chest in a rather pleasing way. It was confusing. "Our leader needs sustenance."

"About that," Keith starts, chewing the inside of his lip for a second as he glances away from Lance. He was finding it hard to look at him, to process whatever it was that his emotions were trying to tell him. 

He was shaking, trembles that seemed to come from within his body and engulfing him in this light uncomfortable wave of sudden shyness he has never felt before. But he pushes those away and focuses on the main issue that has been troubling his mind. He shakes his head to clear it and lifts his gaze back to Lance who has leaned against Red's paw and who was waiting. "I'm sorry for how I've been behaving. Losing Shiro, the only family I have left, it… it messed up with me. I fell, once again, to that same old dark place I was before I met him. I don't know how to cope with any of this."

"No-one does really," Lance says calmly. "To be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing."

Keith chuckles lightly. "You seemed to know exactly what you were doing when you yelled at me."

"Yeah, well," Lance scratches the back of his neck slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be," Keith says and Lance stares at him in confusion. "I needed to hear that. I needed someone to shake me awake from my own grief. You acted like the leader I should be. I think the Black Lion got it wrong."

"No, it didn't," Lance's words linger in the air for a few seconds before they land heavily on Keith's reasoning. 

He stares at his fellow paladin and sees something gleaming in his eyes, slowly dispersing the tempest and letting the blue spark back to life. There's a radiance surrounding Lance Keith has never seen before, almost like the magical energy that envelops them whenever they form Voltron. It reaches out to him in a wave of invisibility that is warm and potent and Keith lets it wash over him, craving its comfort. He hears Red reverberating through Lance's every word, feels the bond vibrating with each pause and Keith basks in it.

"Shiro wanted you to lead because he knew we would follow you to the end. If anyone is capable of leading us to victory, it's you, Keith."

"Maybe you have a little too much faith in me," Keith retorts with a humourless chuckle that sounds empty.

Lance takes a step towards Keith, searches his eyes deeply and that same energy flutters around Keith like the whisper of a breeze. Red's purr grew louder, exciting overloading her senses and Keith could feel his own body mimicking them. 

"I lay all my faith and trust in you, teamleader," Lance proclaims firmly, no shadow of doubt or the ghost of empty promises hollowing his words. He means them, each one of them. Lance places a hand on his shoulder, just like he did when Black chose him to follow in Shiro's footsteps.

The energy that surges through him rips the sorrow apart and breaks it into tiny pieces of determination that have Lance's name attached to them. Keith's realisation of what his heart was beating and yearning for was overwhelming and completely unexpected. From the depths of his sorrow, the sun shines in the form of Lance and it eclipses the pain of his recent loss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading 🤗
> 
> If you liked this fic, please leave some kudos and/or a comment. I'll be eternally grateful.
> 
> If you wish to read more of my content, follow my [Instagram](https://instagram.com/eleanoramckogane?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=1m70cqnbtk7sg) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/kogane_mc?s=09) (please, only follow me on Twitter if you're **+18** ) to keep up to date with all brand new content 💜
> 
> _Xoxo Ellie_


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